This disclosure relates generally to achieving larger color gamut, increased dynamic range, and other improved performance characteristics on output devices by employing enhanced subpixel geometry. More particularly, this disclosure relates to rendering and optimization of source content based on a representation of the enhanced subpixel geometry and display modes.
Modern consumer electronic devices incorporate output devices to exchange information with users. An output device may be a display device such as liquid crystal display (LCD), organic light emitting diode (OLED), plasma, digital light processing (DLP), and the like. The display device usually employs some form of spatial subpixel layout with a group of subpixel elements within each pixel. Each subpixel element of the group corresponds to a primary color (e.g., red (R), green (G), blue (B), and the like). In many cases, voltage applied to the subpixel element is controlled between a lower limit and an upper limit to change colored light output from the subpixel element. Output colored lights from the subpixel elements of the group can thus be combined in varying amounts to produce a full gamut of colors described as a color-space of the display device.
Conventionally, display devices include red, green, and blue subpixel elements. The absolute colors of each of the subpixel elements, often described in the International Commission on Illumination XYZ (CIEXYZ) color-space or other absolute color-space, are referred to as the display's primaries or primary colors. By mixing variable brightness of the Red, Green, and Blue primaries, the display may produce the sensation of any color that lies within the three dimensional volume (gamut) described by the combination of the primaries in, e.g., the CIEXYZ color-space in which RGB vertices may be represented by: (0, 0, 0) for black; (0, 0, 1) for blue; (0, 1, 0) for green; (0, 1, 1) for cyan; (1, 0, 0) for red; (1, 0, 1) for magenta; (1, 1, 0) for yellow; and (1, 1, 1) for white. Rendering algorithms are also typically configured to output RGB content that can be displayed on RGB subpixel elements of display devices. However, the color-space that can be generated by conventional display devices with physically realizable RGB subpixel primaries cannot completely encompass the full gamut of human vision. In order to increase the color gamut of display devices (and/or improve other characteristics like display brightness, dynamic range, power consumption and the like), it is desirable to increase the number of subpixel primaries and/or change the structure (e.g., relative sizes) of the subpixel elements, while continuing the capability of the display devices to be addressed using conventional triplex (e.g., RGB) rendering algorithms and content.